agirlnamedfrankie

My post-op instructions say not to chew gum because it can get accidentally swallowed. I thought that seemed dumb considering how often I swallowed gum before the surgery (never).

I felt the same. The website said that the staff is bilingual but aside from Dr. Joy and Nathalie, I would definitely not call the staff bilingual. I feel like we mostly managed to get by okay with my rusty Spanish skills but it does get tiring when you're already in a vulnerable state to have to work so hard at communicating. I did get soup fine at the hotel, though. I had it my first night via room service and they even delivered it as just broth with a side dish of all the rice and veggies that should have gone it it. They had a tropical Jello that was fine after picking the fruit off the top and then the little outdoor restaurant that's poolside also had just plain broth. I feel satisfied with my overall experience. I am not gushingly over the moon as I've read some patients are with other doctors but I don't have any complaints. The information does tend to come step by step...you get the next step after you complete the previous one, whereas I probably would have liked to receive it all at once. (For example, you get info about being picked up at the airport. I had to inquire as to where I was going from there since the material talked about checking in at the hospital but I was to go to the hotel. Once at the hotel, you receive your check-in info for the hospital the following day. Then when you get to the hospital, you get the schedule for the day. Etc.) The facilities were nice and clean and very quiet. The only time I ever saw another patient was while walking and the door was open. Never saw any in the halls. The door next to mine had a congrats on the new baby sign on it but I never heard a peep from there. Rooms were large and the bed seemed surprisingly comfortable. There were two big couches and two televisions, an a/c that you can control, etc. No complaints there!

Ooh, they do! And so many pretty colors. Thanks for the tip.

I was sleeved on the 6th. I'm down 27 since surgery, 33 total. So far, I've only been walking about an hour several days a week but will be starting up some classes this week. Looks like I may be losing a bit slower than some folks and I did have an almost two week stall but I'm satisfied so far.

Same experience here, with both the freezing and the screen jumping. Additionally, the "mark read" checkmark says to use a long hold to avoid the pop-up dialog but I can hold it forever and nothing happens. And despite marking read, threads show up under the "unread" section when no new posts have been added.

There are some in the food/recipe section of the forums...I was just reading through them the other day and saw some pumpkin related recipes. Check there!

I asked this same question before my surgery. As a really picky eater, it would make my life so much easier if I could like more foods...including tomatoes! Oh my gosh, the world is not made for tomato haters. And I'm really not a vegetable fan. I'm just getting to the real foods phase so I haven't tried all those but I don't have a whole lot of hope. Although, like Forsythia, I can now tolerate Greek yogurt whereas before, I couldn't so maybe it will get better.

30 pounds in two weeks is a super fast loss. Your body is probably just figuring out what happened and is readjusting. Stalls around the third week are very common. Just hang in there and it will pass eventually.

That's likely regular lemonade which is full of sugar.

Did you pick her? Does she have bariatric experience? What reasons has she given for not wanting to approve you? Maybe you could speak with so done else?

We're over here! http://www.bariatricpal.com/topic/309886-mn-minneapolisstpaul/ I think the next meet up is tentatively set for Sept 20th, 1pm at the Fridley La Casitas.

I stalled for about 10 days starting on day 13 after my surgery so I don't think it's strictly a third week deal. It was super frustrating but did pass and now the scale's going down again.

I was sleeved 8/6 and I'm down 20lbs since surgery, despite the scale not budging from 8/17 - 8/30, so I guess I can't complain. Finally starting to feel like I have some energy which took awhile. Aside from that, I've really had no problems. I've been walking about 3 miles a day this past week. I'm definitely ready to transition into the real food stage, though!

I totally know what you mean. It's kind of a harsh wake-up call realizing how much of my life is focused around eating and how few other non-food activities sound like fun. I'll be fine and then see something like a simple photo on FB of someone having a pizza and beer for dinner and it feels terrible to not be able to just relax into that comfort. It's starting to get a bit better, though, and I can see glimpses of light as I get closer to being able to eat any sort of regular food. But yes, it's so frustrating and I've been way more emotional than usual post-surgery which I hear is common. Looking forward to getting out of that limbo where food can no longer be my comfort but I'm not yet obsessed with exercise or other active stuff. Oh, and my doc requires 1 week of Clear Liquids and 2 of full liquids post-op so you're not alone there either.

Could it be that he's just being cautious based on previous experiences? If I loosely interpreted what your brain heard and then added that to a request to see you again, that might be what I came up with, although it's hard to say without being there, of course. Maybe tell him what you heard which would give him a chance to either clarify or confirm? Bringing it up would be difficult but probably more beneficial than letting it fester and thinking "wtf, he's not that into me" when you hang out. That being said, I know that sometimes advice isn't wanted and the best answer is just "that sucks" so you can have one of those, too. That sucks. Hope it works out well, whatever that happens to be.

What she actually said was to not read the thread for the 2-3 weeks before your surgery. Presumably (hopefully), by the time you've scheduled your surgery, you've done all kinds of research, both good and bad. Once you've made an educated decision for yourself and decided to have the surgery, a lot of people experience a fair amount of anxiety in the time just before. I believe she's just suggesting that perhaps hanging out in the forum meant solely for complications isn't the best way to psych yourself up for the decision you've already made. I don't think anyone would advocate blindly going into this and just ignoring all potential side effects. I hope.

But it seems to really be everything. Despite only being subscribed to the sleeve forums via my profile, I see lapband and bypass threads in my unread threads.

That seems to be my general state of sleep, although not something that changed with surgery. I typically take melatonin and sometimes a Xanax to help me sleep. Are you taking vitamins? Is it possible that some of those are messing with your sleep? For instance, I was told to take B12 in the morning because it could keep you awake if taken later in the day.

New app is plastered with even more ads, including pop-ups that must repeatedly be closed out and videos that you have to watch until a skip button shows up, doesn't seem to filter forums well and freezes every few minutes. Really wish I hadn't updated.

I've got a list of Vitamin recommendations from the doctor but I feel like every day in the forums, I read new advice about when to take what and what interferes. I'm curious how you time/space out your various Vitamins and why. I'm currently taking: Multivitamin (2 full strength but read not to take them at the same time, plus instructions say to take with food. includes iron) Calcium chews (should be 1500, I'm taking 500 chews but read that only 500 can be absorbed at a time. also, must take 4 hours apart from iron) omeprazole (read it's better at night on an empty stomach?) Vitamin D, liquid vitamin b12, sublingual Am I missing any important conflicts, etc.? I feel like I won't be awake enough hours to space everything out properly.

I had the same thing, two weeks with no change but I've finally gone down a few more in the last couple of days. If you check any of the stall threads, you'll see that it's super common but it's still so frustrating so early on, even if your brain knows that it's common. Hang in there, it's not forever.

From what I've read, changes in schedule, spotting in between, etc., are pretty common as your body adjusts to major surgery. I've had mine once since surgery, on time, but man was it brutal. 10 days long, more cramps than ever and super heavy. I hope that's all it takes to regulate itself because I don't want to put up with that!

There's a forum section for recipes for each stage. Here's the one for purees. http://www.bariatricpal.com/forum/1055-pur%C3%A9e-stage-2/

I like the Premier Protein as well but for powder, my favorite so far is the Syntrax Nectar Chocolate Truffle. It's not quite as thick tasting as the Premier ones. What I did was order samples from a variety of places so that I knew what I liked before buying a tub. The tub works out to about a $1 a shake. I'd wait until after your surgery before stocking up too much, though, as lots of people report that their tastes changed so you might not still like what you do now.

Not to roll out the cliches but when you're dealing with this many people, the best thing to remember is that bit about how you can't change people, you can only change how you react to them. If you approach a forum knowing that you're going to encounter a vast variety of people from different backgrounds, with different experiences, with different ways of communicating, you can learn how to scan for the bits of advice that are helpful, ignore the ones that aren't, roll your eyes at people who deserve it and get the best out of this resource without having to feel negatively about it.